MedWire News: Estradiol and estrone elevations in men cause an unfavorable lipid profile at an early age, report investigators in the journal Atherosclerosis.
"Men show higher rates of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality than pre-menopausal women and this sexual dimorphism may be related to sex-specific effects of sex steroids on cardiovascular risk factors," say Maciej Tomaszewski (University of Leicester, UK) and co-workers.
Estrogens are thought to have a negative effect on the male cardiovascular system, the researchers explain. Indeed, increased plasma estradiol levels have been linked to increased risks for coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, and stroke, they note.
In this study, the researchers investigated links between estradiol, estrone, testosterone, and androstenedione and lipids, blood pressure, and body mass in a group of 933 young Polish men, aged an average of 19 years, from the Young Men Cardiovascular Association (YMCA) study.
Tomaszewski and team found associations between all lipid fractions measured and estradiol, but the most significant was between estradiol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. HDL cholesterol decreased in a linear fashion from the bottom (33.6-37.5 pmol/l) to the top quartile (117.0-123.7 pmol/l) of estradiol from 1.14 mmol/l (44.1 mg/dl) to 1.01 mmol/l (39.1 mg/dl).
Meanwhile, estrone was associated with both total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which both increased incrementally from the bottom (59.0-64.1 pmol/l) to the top (252.2-271.5 pmol/l) quartiles of estrone from 4.1 mmol/l (158.7 mg/dl) to 4.4 mmol/l (170.3 mg/dl) and 2.2 mmol/l (85.1 mg/dl) to 2.6 mmol/l (100.6 mg/dl), respectively.
After multivariate analysis, the associations between lipids and estrogens were still valid. One standard deviation (SD) increase in estradiol resulted in a 6% SD increase in total cholesterol and 6% SD decrease in HDL cholesterol. Similarly, a one-SD increase in estrone was associated with a 12% and 13% SD increase in total and LDL cholesterol levels, respectively.
Tomaszewski et al conclude: "Future prospective, long-term studies are needed to confirm that endogenous estrogens are likely to contribute to hyperlipidemia in men and aid in the dissection of sex-specific associations between sex steroids and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality."
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